December 2010
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Idiom of the Day
Dromadary [Archaic, but I’m bringing it back, ‘natch] n: A bumbling fool.
(guess who got more dictionaries for Chanukah.)
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“[Zookeepers] then rubbed the male cheetah cub against Zazi’s female cub to...”
– A cheetah foster family
But at least animals are still adorable. If only this strategy worked in other contacts… rub world leaders together and watch the fraternal bond flourish! Actually this doesn’t seem so different from that Inuit tradition of greeting by rubbing noses, which...
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“Einolf said many of the other books neglect key elements, such as the role of...”
– Some Va. history texts filled with errors, review finds
Some of the other errors seem relatively immaterial (dates being off by a year or two — only vitally important if you’re writing a cross-cultural study on a very specific period of time, I’d argue), but neglecting to mention...
I’m actively amazed at how calm and un-screamy Penn Station is given 3+ hour delays. Resigned travelers must be returning non-New Yorkers.
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“I don’t want to be human! I want to see Gamma-rays, I want to hear X-rays,...”
– “John,” Battlestar Galactica 4.5x5
Not only is that effing beautiful writing, it’s one of the most human expressions of the unbearable frustration of our puny, limited capacity to feel and perceive and genuinely experience that I’ve ever heard. From the mouth of a machine,...
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Grammy lifetime achievement awards: Dolly Parton... →
Ho ho ho! Merrrrry Christmas!
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Kaplan Tarnishes Washington Post Legacy →
Well this story isn’t making me feel any better about my first venture into for-profit employment.
Granted, I’ve made the choice to tutor K-8 students, which is just about the farthest department from Kaplan’s profit-seeking colleges which sit at the heart of the controversy. But I harbor no delusions about the model on which the well-known tutoring and test-prep arm of the...
“Ordinary incompetence, as we have seen, is no cause for dismissal: it is simply...”
– The Peter Principle, Dr. Laurence J Peter and Raymund Hull
Your satire? It’s not so funny right now. I don’t wanna say this is my life but THIS IS MY LIFE.
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Is it weird
If I’m kind of excited to take this mandatory online course on Sexual Harassment, like, as an investigative thought exercise? I feel pretty tuned-in to these issues what with reading about/writing about/experiencing them every day, but I am fascinated by the prospect of how the Washington Post Company will condense it all into 20 minutes of click-through, testable material. And by extension,...
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that darn kat: TMI: Mental Health Edition →
meowsense:
I have been on an antidepressant for about a week. This is the first time I have ever taken one, but my mom finally talked me into it, about six years after she first made the suggestion.
I don’t know how to explain the effect it has had on me other than to say that I feel like my true self was buried under a pile of rubble until Lexapro grabbed a shovel and unearthed it. ...
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Another actor injured during "Spider-Man"... →
helveticafutura:
brutallyhonestbabes:
That’s not your spider sense tingling. That’s your broken femur.
Fortunately it appears that Actors’ Equity has gotten involved and shut it down.
Oh gosh darn it. At least they can’t pull The Tempest out of theaters before I can afford a ticket. Uh. Or in any case it’ll be on Netflix eventually.
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92% of Nonprofits rely on outdated technology,... →
This would be a head-slappingly obvious non-headline (nonprofits lack funding for optimal supplies and practices? No way!), except that I think it underscores an interesting difference in the way non- and for-profit companies are handling budget squeezes associated with the Depression Recession FINE economic climate.
If you look at how larger corporations are spending what small profits they...
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WatchHarvey Milk 2010?
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Counting those darn fetal chickens again.
Someone needs to explain to me that good interviews do not, in fact, mean I suddenly have any money in my checking account, and are therefore not sufficient justification to go out and buy myself treats.
On the other hand, if I’m going to buy myself treats, makeup from any brand that isn’t Wet N’ Wild is probably a good investment vis a vis this “career” thing. Why...
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Just when you thought you were through with me and...
Longest night of the year? That means we’re reaching the second half of the “things have to reach their darkest before they can become light again” cliché, right?
Well. As of today, you are reading the blog of a girl who… will be employed. Part time. For some vague number of hours per week at some time vaguely following the new year. But this one’s a real job where I...
“Then I watched all kinds of Everest documentaries and got even more bewildered,...”
– mimi smartypants - scare crow straw man
Some days I wrestle with myself over whether I am a fake city-kid and should in fact be living on a farm and hiking a lot. Other days I read Mimi Smartypants and feel smug next to my space heater before I go hear a lecture on Lacan and meet with the members...
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Rape Apologism: Just Do Not Grok It.
Instead of boring old sex, I’m going to try “borrowing money,” “entering your home,” and “extreme BDSM” by surprise to see how they go over.
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Oh hey, DADT
That repeal’s pretty cool, better late than never assuming the Prez gets to signing the thing at some point. Now how about a Federal ENDA so the rest of us have the same protection as soldiers?
I know, I know, getting greedy. It’s like we get one basic civil liberty and all of a sudden we want full government protection as persons all of a sudden.
GOAT NET RURAL WIFI « spectre footnotes →
Exactly what it sounds like — similar to giving to Heifer International, but with important communications and technology implications too. What a world, what a world.
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First World Problems I Don't Even Have Yet
I am worried about keeping my inbox under control if I ever get a real job again. Also I am going to bed RIGHT NOW because Dinah, shut the hell up already.
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One if by land, two if by sea, ZERO if by time-traveling rogue jet engine. Cannot believe I let the kid talk me into watching Donnie Darko.
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Who Said It: James Franco or Ben Franklin? →
I got a C on this quiz. It is a good quiz, and James Franco is leading the #1 charmed life in the world, as far as I am concerned.
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Russia's stylish uniform 'sends soldiers to... →
Hey, juxtapose this.
Immediately following the inane “Gays are Military Distractions” headline, we have this story from our Slavic counterparts. I don’t know where your mind went seeing these articles back to back, but my initial assumption was something like “Russian soldiers get new sexy uniforms which distract them while on duty and cause casualties.” Because...
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Marine general suggests repeal of 'don't ask'... →
Hey, you know what’s actually a distraction? ANY SOLDIER THINKING ABOUT HIS COMRADES’ SEX LIVES IN A WAR ZONE. So how about we penalize the bigots who can’t get their mind out of the gutter (ACTION) rather than the LGBT soldiers who have the temerity to exist (IDENTITY).
I imagine it’s also distracting and exhausting to expend the mental energy necessary to stay closeted...
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“Before I decided to write this book my twenty-five years with Gertrude Stein, I...”
– The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein
(You’d think this was the same woman who wrote Making of Americans or something…)
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Speaking of Truisms
I have THE FUNNIEST story for you about trying to update the clearly outmoded “one in the hand is worth two in the bush” with Evyn but oh! I cannot tell it because it involves admitting far too much about my internet dating habits (and it is still possible that the person who I’ve definitely never met before will follow up on their email titled “one in the bed”).
jinx jinx jinx
Uh… my accountant just told me I was being paranoid and won’t owe the government a million dollars, AND apparently I’m interviewing to be an NYC teaching fellow? Did the job market wake up when I wasn’t paying attention, or is this one of those huge cosmic jokes that totally aren’t funny by the end?
The other shoe, when will it drop
I am pretty legitimately terrified by how well this week is going so far.
Julianne Moore just talked incredibly articulately for an hour and a half and gave me so much brain fodder (and smiled at me with all those freckles OMG), a rad gay rights nonprofit just contacted ME about a job, and my best friend from home is going to walk through my door any minute on a day’s notice, which is far...
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Oprah Winfrey Tops Roster of Celebrity Donors →
Your quarterly Oprah update here, for all the haters, because I haven’t found backing to write my book about her yet. (Yet.)
Lady O gave away $40 million last year. I’ll tell you what’s worth a thousand words, $40 million.
(Worth noting: all the celebrities mentioned as being at the top of the list are women. Also, Meryl Streep ranks #3. That is all.)
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“An excessive fear of being direct, and the worship of the difficult, endemic in...”
– Iain McGilchrist (via epsteinian)
This sentence contains something brilliant but is constructed in a sufficiently poor/confusing way that I’m not sure which side McGilchrist is ultimately defending. My vote is to abandon the “worship of the difficult” and kick people in the gut...
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Stupid Questions (I think they can exist, at least...
I know you’re not supposed to count chickens before they hatch, but what if the organization with which you’re interviewing protects fetal chickens and you really want to help them do that??
Need to dress like an adult on Friday and communicate like a human, even if Mercury is in Retrograde. As long as we are in cliché land, Damn the Torpedoes!
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“There is always money for, there are always doctorates in, the learned foolery...”
– Aldous Huxley spanks all things ‘scholarly’ (via epsteinian)
Interesting juxtaposition to the removal of Narcissistic Personality Disorder from the new DSM: in the future we’ll all be getting doctorate money to research our own influences. (All of us who are important, anyway. Which I guess...
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Well, well. NY finally does something, sorta.
psydoctor8:
“New York prosecutors, police and lawyers are endorsing the videotaping of suspect interrogations, now a common practice in many counties and considered a safeguard against both false confessions and defendant allegations of coercion. (…) The group urged mandatory electronic recording of entire felony interrogations to help determine whether confessions are reliable.”
(WSJ -23...